Well.. I’ve been able to do Toes to Bar for some time now, but I can never do them WELL, or efficiently, or more than one at a time, really, and I’d always just take the easy way out and do knees to chest, or toes to rings if the rings were down.. (LOVE toes to rings, you can get a good swing in..)

In fact.. my T2R practice is probably what let me get to the point where I was at with my T2B, regardless, I still didn’t like T2B, and I wasn’t good at them.. so naturally, 13.4 was a little nervewrecking for me.

I waited 2 days to do 13.4.. judging Wednesday night, and then again this morning, but still chickening out on my attempts until this afternoon. I wanted to find my tape, wanted to make sure I was warmed up, wanted to make sure it was nice out, my lungs weren’t freezing, you name it. I finally got up on the damn bar this morning and knocked 3 T2B in a row out. Whaaaat?!!! YESSSS!!!!! FUCK YES! I got this.. Okay, I got this, let’s do this, I can do this.. I’m actually gonna get more than 3 reps for this WOD!!! ommgggg

So.. 4:30p comes around, I judge the first heat, take the 2nd heat to warm up, and go in the 3rd heat. Gina helps me with my strappy tape hand things, but I’ve found that I prefer just taping my hands instead of making them into ‘reusable’ ones. They hold my skin in place and my hands don’t hurt as much when they’re physically taped.

95lb C&J, cake. No big deal. I even got complimented on my form, something that NEVER happens, since a 95lb clean and jerk is light enough for me lift it. (I don’t power through them usually.. I just pick up the damn bar..) So yeah, nice!!

Okay.. time for my first 3 T2B.. I FUCKING DID THEM. All of them. Easy! I got this.. hahahahahaaaaa I was smiling ear to ear with just being able to do them. So excited!!

I ended up getting through the sets of 3, 6 and 9 reps, for a total of 36. It’s not winning any awards or anything, but shit.. that’s more toes to bar than I’ve EVER done, and I was beaming with pride. So happy!!! And.. AND.. I got complimented on my kip, as well. Whatt?? I’m doing things properly AND THEY LOOK GOOD?? Who am I!?

It was so awesome that I ended up helping a friend later on with her kipping form for her T2B.. She went from being 3 feet away from the bar, to being inches away.. Hopefully I motivated her a little to attempt 13.4. I even knocked a few more out, strung them together.

This is definitely the benefit of feeling better after my stupid cold. I still have some of it lingering (snot in my chest, its gross..) but I feel so much better, and I can breathe. I’m probably gonna try and get a better score on Sunday. I TOTALLY have another round of C&J in me. My goal for next time will be 45-50. I’d be SUPER happy with that. This was just to see if I could do it, and I CAN!! I CAN DO IT!!!! 🙂

#rogue hashtag rogue. yeah buddy.

Today was great but it was HARD. A hand wrecker and a lung killer.. I love rope climbs more than the average person, but that doesn’t mean I’m good at them! We had a 1000m run Buy In which, I must admit, was pretty fucking easy. Like, oh yeah no big deal.. thats only 2 1/2 times around the block.. I’m used to doing 4-5-6 times around without stopping!

I’ve NEVER shrugged off a 1000m run before, but this was just literally no big deal. Doesn’t mean I’m FAST, but I DID IT.. I grabbed my headphones and headed out. 🙂 The rest of the workout was as follows:

5 RFT
10 Pistols (still can’t do these, fuck me)
2 rope climbs
10 power snatches 95/65

I used a band on the pistols, got through 5 out of 6 rope climbs (the last one I did sissy-style), and RXed the weight on the snatches. I stopped at 3 rounds though, because I really felt like SHIT getting through that 2nd round, even. It was my 2nd day back and big time lung wrecker. I finished 3 rounds in 23:04 (this time includes my 1000m yog, as well.)

I went to the bathroom and washed my face. My hands and arms were shaking so much, and under so much stress from the rope climbs that I could barely bring the water from the sink to my face. It was bizarre. I was so glad I stopped.

In any case, I’m glad I went, glad I attempted it, and glad I didn’t push myself beyond my limits. I’m still blowing out snot like you wouldn’t believe. WHERE DOES THIS SNOT COME FROM?! Seriously.. I’ve never produced so much snot in my life.. gross.

OMMGGGGG I finally felt good enough to go work out today and it was AMAZING!! I was a little winded at first, but it just felt wonderful to be back in it without dying.

ALSO, I HAD to go because my sister Tori is in town with her 3 kids, Kaycie, Kyle and Mitch, and Mitch’s girlfriend Jordan. Kaycie and Mitch both asked about going to Crossfit again with me (as they did last year when I was visiting up north), and Tori wanted to go as well. I really wanted to be there for my family, and I was thrilled that they wanted to try it again. 🙂

We started out with some core exercises and stretching, as usual, but we did more core stuff today than normal. Plank holds!! For the first time ever, I was able to hold my 1 min plank (even when Justin placed a kettlebell on my back for the last 30 seconds!) and 1 min planks on each side, for a total of 3 minutes. I usually don’t make it all the way through planks without dropping back down to the floor, but I DID IT!!! That means something. I love seeing small progresses like that. 🙂

Our WOD today was actually two WODS:

WOD 1
3 rounds
1min Max Effort t2b Unbroken
1minMax Effort HSPU unbroken
1min Max effort chest to bar pullups unbroken
1min rest

rest 3min

WOD 2
10 Min Climbing ladder

Kettle bell Swings 75/55
Game Style Pushups
1,1,2,2,3,3 etc

I RXed the 2nd one, and completed 10 rounds total, even with the 55lb KB! Aweeesommmeee. 🙂

They all did great, too!! My mom, of course, is amazing and has been doing CF for about a year now, but Kaycie, Tori and Mitch have all each only gone once before. So proud of them!! 🙂

I feel like I’ve been dying a slow death for the last 2 days. Just moping around, lingering around the Jax Beach area, all ho hum. Waiting for the inevitable. This cold has gotten worse by the minute, it seems!

As I wrote to a friend earlier, who asked about my symptoms:
Up until today, my nose was fine. BUT.. I’ve been experiencing the following:
sore throat
crazy cough (itchy throat, like the only way to relieve it was to cough, but that just made it worse.. was awful)
lots of gross phlegm (ew) usually just yellow and white/clear, but lots of little pieces.
plugged up ears
NO fever.

and that was it.
I texted our dr and he said get some zyrtec D and mucinex max strength, so I did, and I took it. Felt alright but I’ll chalk that up to the wondrous pseudoephedrine. Mmmm. Brings me back to my high school days!

Then last night happened.. I had to go upstairs and sleep because I didn’t want my hacking to wake dave up. I was up ALL night coughing, over and over and over, it was hell. Nothing I did made it better. Just had to cough, spit the shit out, have a drink of water, and try to sleep again, then I’d wake up like 2 min later and repeat. Poor Sammi. She stuck by my side the entire time, too.

Today its been a hacking cough, still coughing shit up, throat isnt nearly as sore though. Made an appt with our Dr this morning, he didn’t really tell me anything special, just said to keep taking the stuff he recommended. Except now my nose is running and I have to constantly blow it.

So now my symptoms are..

a runny, stuffy nose, a little bit of a sore throat, and a crazy cough, and still coughing shit up. Not achy, just tired and lethargic. No fever still. One of my eyes has been watering (its not allergies). A little bit of sinus pressure now too.
Ive tried
Mucinex
Zyrtec D
Tylenol Cold and Flu
Alka Seltzer cold and flu tablets
Airborne
Vit C with Zinc and Echinacea
Visine for my eye.
Shit sucks.

As far as my runny nose goes, I waited, and held out, and refused, and said no for the last 24 hours.  I finally caved in and used my Afrin. This stuff was created by the gods and now I feel amazing. *takes a deep breath in through my nose..* ahhhhhhhhhh….

Next time, I won’t bother waiting to use it. Just made myself miserable without it. We’ll see how the rest of the night goes with this magical nectar.

So I opted to do 13.2 on Thursday, to get it over with. I was the only one going, as it was right before the 10a class, and everyone else who was there wanted to do the regular WOD, or stretch, and then do it afterwards. I didn’t want to take up coaching time for mine, so I came in early to get it done.

Sucked…. You know what sucked about it?? I was doing it alone, there was no music, it was cold, my lungs were burning.. Terrible conditions for a competitive WOD. I ended up scoring 190.

I said I wouldn’t redo it, oh well, one and done. After I saw how others were scoring, I was like, omg, I can totally do better than that.

And then my cough/sore throat got worse.. by the hour, it seemed! By Friday, my ears were stuffy and plugged, I was coughing and clearing my throat throughout the day, and coughing up some yummy phlegm. Mmmmmmmmm.. I didn’t work out Friday.. I didn’t work out Saturday (I did cheer on my fellow teammates at CF Southside though), and then today.. Sunday, I swore up and down I’d suck it up, take some meds, and redo the WOD.

I judged 3 rounds.. and then went for a quick jog around the block. Halfway around I felt the cold, dry feeling in my lungs.. the same I felt from Thursday. So dry! I thought to myself, no way.. it’s just not worth it. I spent all night trying to get rested up for this, even went to bed at 9p last night, but I ended up getting up 3-4 times to cough shit up and take meds. I told my coaches no chance.. it’s just not worth it. I know I can do better than 190, but let’s face it, I’m not going to Regionals, so, I just need to suck it up and accept my shitty score. 🙁

I hope I start feeling better soon!! My doctor texted me and recommended Mucinex and Zyrtec D.. if this is what ‘feeling better’ feels like, I don’t want to know how I’d feel if I hadn’t taken anything.. Good lord.

Today was another Bring a Friend Day, which was great because it gave people the opportunity to come two separate days, if they wanted to!

13.2 was also announced, for the Crossfit Open, and it was surprisingly similar to our workout today! Go figure..
It coincidentally had box jumps and deadlifts in it just like 13.2! WTF.

It was a buddy WOD, so while your partner runs 400m, you do deadlifts box jumps and toes to bar.. I just forget the order. I think it was 5, 7, 9. Easy numbers!

Holly and I killed it. Did 2-3 rounds per 400m, and we ended up with a score of 13 rounds + 12. YEAH.

Bring a Friend Day. Crossfit Total Control Jax Beach

Alicia Soret to Helen Marie Hunter

I just want you to know….. that I judged for the first time ever for 13.1, and I ended up judging like 15 people over the course of a few days. HOLY MOLY. As soon as I judged one person, I had others requesting me to judge them, and more requests, and facebook messages, and texts, and waiting lists, for people who wanted me to judge them and I couldn’t figure out why!!

Then I thought about my awesome experience with you and the Zoo peeps (Sept 2012) and it made me realize why!! I judged my people the same way you judged me.. you didn’t just stand there and count for me like you could’ve just done.. noooo.. you pushed me, encouraged me, and gave me the strength and motivation to keep going.. so that’s of course what I did, too!!! I yelled at them, cheered them on, celebrated every heavy rep, and every additional burpee they didn’t think they had in them, and in turn, I got lots of sweaty hugs and shaky high fives and breathless thank yous from the floor. In fact.. here’s a picture of me doing an imaginary snatch pull while I was judging my friend Emily.. I laugh every time I see this, because I’m literally willing her to get her lifts. haha
 
So THANK YOU for being so awesome! You will always have a special place in my heart for the way that you pushed me at Rex Rumble. You changed my life, lady. 🙂 ♥ ♥ ♥

Judging at 13.1 at Crossfit Jax

I somehow finally convinced a non CrossFit friend to try it, and she KILLED IT!!! Megan, from our country club, has been one of our favorite servers there for a long time, and she always comments and remarks on my progress, and of course, I informed her of Bring a Friend day, and she said yeah! I’ll try it!

She was SUCH a trooper… she walked in with a smile on her face. Introduced herself to everyone.. I swear, if she was nervous, I would’ve never known. I am only assuming she was because everyone is when they first walk into a Crossfit place. But no.. she was all excited. Never complained, cried, quit, gave up, or anything. She had SUCH A GOOD ATTITUDE!!

When I grow up, I wanna have as good of an attitude as Megan. 🙂 I can’t wait to see the pics!!

This was one of those workouts where you don’t really feel like you’re getting a workout, but it was welcomed since we were all so spent from 13.1. I wasn’t upset, basically. 😀

I ALSO PRed my cleans at 155!! I had to squat clean it, but damn it, I did it! It was ugly, and I definitely need to work on my heavier squat clean form, but I did it. YEEEAH!

Our WOD was:

Complete the heaviest set possible: Perform 3 reps per set
This is a combination lift of four movements that make up one rep:
1. Deadlift from floor to knee height, return bar to floor.
2. Deadlift from floor to hip height, return bar to the knee height.
3. High Pull from knee height to full extension, return bar to the floor.
4. Power Clean

*Work up to the heaviest set of 3 reps possible.

I did 155 and 115 for my reps.

So, I know I already posted about this, but I’m going to count my 13.1 WOD as an actual day of Crossfit! I’ve been spending a lot of time at the gym, but not working out. I’ve been judging instead, so that others could get their scores in! I love volunteering at my gym, and I love that people kept asking me to judge them. I felt honored that people were requesting me to the point where I had to schedule everyone in! Why me? Not sure..

My inspiration for judging though comes from Helen, my judge at Rex Rumble, my first ever competition, back in September? 2012. She counted for me yes, but she also pushed me, motivated me, encouraged me to keep going, and I didn’t realize that judges could do that!!! I didn’t think they were allowed.

When I went to do my 13.1, my awesome trainer, Tom, also did the same for me. He knows my limits, what I’m capable of, and pushed me without aggravating me. He kept my time, kept me going, and took care of all the thinking that I would’ve been doing otherwise. That’s what a good coach should be, IMO. He completely knows my limits, and where I should be, strength and ability wise. It’s really quite an honor to have such amazing people around me!

In turn.. for my first ever time judging, I opted to do the same with my people. I would yell at them, encourage them, count for them, keep their time for them. I always asked what they preferred, but if they didn’t have a preference, I just did the above. Apparently it was a good thing, because I had people left and right asking me to judge for them!

The list of people I’ve judged for 13.1 (at least those names I can recall, anyway!) includes….
Nate, Tom, Christine, Patrick, Emily, Gina, Chad, Thomas, Tom again, Dezi, Jessica, Mary Lynn.. man I can’t even remember now! Hahaha

Judging Emily. You can see me doing imaginary shrugs and pulls, willing her to get all her snatches in! 13.1

I will continue this later, or I’m gonna forget to post it at all!